Philip V of Macedon

Even a blind man can see that

Philip V (Greek: Φίλιππος, Philippos; 238–179 BC) was king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon from 221 to 179 BC. Philip's reign was principally marked by the Social War in Greece (220-217 BC) and a struggle with the emerging power of the Roman Republic. He would lead Macedon against Rome in the First (212-205 BC) and Second (200-196 BC) Macedonian Wars. While he lost the latter, Philip later allied with Rome against Antiochus III in the Roman-Seleucid War. He died in 179 BC from illness after efforts to recover the military and economic condition of Macedonia and passed the throne onto his elder son, Perseus of Macedon.

Quotes

• Nihil tam incertum nec tam inaestimabile est quam animi multitudinis.
  • Nothing is so uncertain or so unpredictable as the mental reaction of a crowd.
    • Livy, 31, 34, 3
    • Evan T. Sage, tr., Livy in Fourteen Volumes, IX (1935), p. 101

• Τοῦτο μὲν, ὦ Φαινέα, καὶ τυφλῷ δῆλον.
  • One can see that with half an eye.
    • Polybius, 18, 17, 4. Rejoinder of Philip V (of Macedon) to the one-eyed Ætolian commander, Phæneas, in the Second Macedonian War, 198 BC
    • Or, as related in Livy, 32, 34, 3, Apparet id quidem etiam cæco.—"Even a blind man can see that."
    • Cited in Classical and Foreign Quotations (1904), no. 141